Growing up in the tropics of Queensland Australia does not equip one for heavy snow falls of the northern hemisphere.  I recently returned from Denver Colorado to  investigate the possibility of the investor group I consult for purchasing a company operating in Denver.

 I did not have any time to look around the country side of Colorado which I will do at a later date and which I am keen to do because of the natural beauty of the mountains and wilderness.  I would like to see something exotic like a bear roaming in the wild having never seen a bear except in a zoo. 

It always fascinates me when people ask me about Australian animals like the Kangaroo or Platypus have this faraway look in their eyes of wonder, when I think of those animals as usual in fact I have a place in northern New South Wales where every day I wake up to Kangaroos and Wallabies grazing in the front yard without a care.  While I love and appreciate the animals of Australia I am always keen to see the animals of other places and I suppose it is the same for other people the exotic animals are the most interesting. A bit like I suppose the old saying familiarity breeds contempt.  Not that I am in anyway contemptuous of any Australian animals.  I even enjoy the odd red belly black snake that regularly slides by and I think I am right in saying they are in the top five deadliest snakes in the world, but he does not bother me and I don’t bother him.

However I am off track with where I was going; as I was saying growing up in the tropics of Australia does not set you up for the experience of a blizzard.  Back in the old days I used to shiver when the temperature 70 degrees about 20 degrees c, anything under that meant it was winter.  Can you imagine when I was in my hotel room watching the snow come down at a great pace driven by 30 knots winds.  Well the temperature dropped faster than a stone dropped from the edge of a cliff.  Needless to say I did not venture outside except to stick my nose outside the hotel just to feel how cold it was which was colder than anything I have ever felt before.

So straight back to my warm room and watch the events unfold on TV and through my hotel window.  The amazing thing is that everyone thought this was nothing out of the ordinary and the snowploughs swung into action and I was supposed to fly out the next day. I thought I would be there for at least a week not being able to get out of the hotel.  The next day it was unbelievable it was as if (other than the snow laying in clumps around the edges of the roadways etc) there was never any problem yester and I was able to make my way out to the airport that had been closed the previous day.  All runways we going at full pace like nothing happened at all.  I was able to catch my flight and arrived back in Australia better for the experience.